Interesting Photo of the Day: Soul Poi

October 20, 2015

There is still a lot of debate behind the use of photo editing software and what constitutes real photography, but sometimes adding in cool effects through manipulation can really make a photograph. Photographer Mikeal Beland has had a growing interest in surrealism and incorporates that into his images. While he believes he could have created the same effect in this photo in a darkroom, the final image is basically an out of camera shot, with just a minor addition from another shot and some exposure lightening:

Soul Poi by Mikeal Beland (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

Beland had his subject stay perfectly still for eight seconds and used an electronic shutter release to snap the long exposure as he ran around the subject with a fire poi ball to create the light painting. He used a Canon 5DS R and Sigma 50mm 1.4 A lens with settings of f/1.4 and ISO 200. The only composite work he did was to add on to the light spiral at the very top. In Lightroom, he adjusted the exposure to lighten it a little.

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